Friday, April 14, 1933

No school today. Aunt Katie and Uncle Laten and Helen were by. I went up to a store on Prospect.



Thomas J. "Boss Tom" Pendergast controlled Kansas City and Jackson
County politics. During the Depression he gave workers jobs and helped elect
politicans. He ruled from a simple, two-story yellow brick building at 1908 Main Street.
Pendergast was a big supporter of Harry S. Truman from Truman's days as judge of the County
Court of the eastern district of Jackson County (an administrative, not a judicial, position)
to his 1934 election as a United States Senator. A wealthy concrete contractor, Pendergast was
convicted of income tax evasion, served 15 months in prison, and died at his Kansas City home in 1945.